Oil burner



NOV.y 24, l Q T, DENKER ETAL OIL BURNER Filed Oct. 23, 1948 v, and doi/u/zRMoog/e WM Mo Cm Patented Nov. 24, 1953 UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE OIL BURNER vCharles T. Denker and John R. Moore, Chicago, Ill.

Claims.

This application relates to burners and, more particularly, liquid-fuel burners such as, for example, oil burners.

Burners of the general nature to which this invention relates have heretofore been known in the art but have had inherent disadvantages such as, for example, not being efficient in operation; not producing efficient and intimate mixing of the fuel with the combustion supportingr air; not effecting complete combustion of the fuel, and the like.

A primary object of our invention is to overcome these disadvantages and to provide a burner wherein the fuel and combustion supporting air are intimately mixed in a novel and expeditious manner to insure efficient combustion of the fuel.

Another object of our invention is to afford a burner wherein primary air and secondary air may be fed into intimate contact with the fuel from a common sourcein a novel and expeditious manner.

An ancillary object is torso construct a novel burner in a manner whereby the amount of primary and secondary air flowing from a common source into contact with the fuel to be burned may be controlled individually. f

Yet another object of our invention is to afford anovel burner wherein the fuel and combustion supporting air are caused to swirl in a turbulent manner in the furnace, or the like, in which the burner is used so as to insure intimate mixture of the air and the fuel, and to insure efficient burning of the fuel. l

A further object ofv our invention is to afford a burner wherein the primary and secondary air are introduced into a furnace, or the like, in opposite directions in a novel4 and expeditious manner. i' I Other and further `objects of the present inven tion will be apparent from the following descrip# tion' and claims and are illustrated in the accompanying drawings which, by way of illustration, show a preferred embodiment and the principles thereof vand what we now consider to be the best modejin which we have contemplated applying those principles. vention Aembodying the same or equivalent principles may be used and structural changes may be made as desired by those skilled inl the art without departing from the present invention and the purview of the appended claims. i

Inthe drawings: Fig. 1 is a side elevational View of a burner embodying the principles of our invention, certainparts thereof being shown in section; i

Other embodiments of the 'in-H the air duct 2S.

Y 2 Y Fig. 2 is a detail plan view taken substantially along the line 2-2 in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a detail sectional View taken substantially along the line 3 3 in Fig. l; and

Fig. 4 is a detail sectional view taken substantially along the line t-AI in Fig. l.

The device shown in the accompanying drawings to illustrate a preferred embodiment of our invention comprises a liquid-fuel 'burner I0, shown mounted in the rebox I2 of a furnace I4, the furnace I4 having a back wall I6 and a front wall II extending upwardly from a bottom wall I8.

The burner I [I includes an elongated blast tube 2l which may extend horizontally through the lower end portion of the front wall Il ofthe furnace I4, Fig. l, and is preferably supported in spaced relation to the bottom wall I8 by suitable means such as spacers 22 projecting upwardly from the bottom wall I8. A partition wall 2li extends longitudinally through the tube 2l to thereby divide the tube into two parts, one part comprising an air duct'26 for feeding air to the burner, and the other part comprising a housing 21 within which various parts of the burner may be disposed, as will be presently described in greater detail. f

A nozzle 3l! is connected by a T-fitting 3l to a feed line 33 mounted in and extending longitudinally through the housing 2I. The nozzle 30 extends upwardly from the feed line 33 through a tightly tting opening 35 formed in the partition wall 2li and projects upwardly through'an enlarged opening 31 formed in the top wall of The discharge orice 39 of the nozzle 30 is'disposed in the upper end portion thereof in a mannerwhereby liquid-fuel such as, for example, oil, may be fed from a source, not

shown,v through the feedline 33 into thenozzle 3G and discharged vertically upwardly therefrom into thecentral portion of the lirebox I2.

An air line 4I, which may be made of any suitf able material such as, for example, a sectionof pipe, is mounted inthe opening 37 around the nozzle 30, in spaced relation thereto, and affords a passageway through which air may be feci from` the air duct 26 upwardly past thenozzle to be mixed with thefuel discharged from the orifice 39, as will be discussed in greater detail herein-` after.

A swirler mechanism 42, Fig. 2, is mounted in the airline 4| for imparting a rotary motion to the air issuing upwardly from theair line. The swirler mechanism comprises a plurality of vanes 43 mounted on and projecting radially outwardly from the upper end portion of the nozzle 35, below the orifice 39, the vanes 4S being disposed at an acute angle to the horizontal to thereby cause the air p-assing upwardly through the air line il to be deflected into a rotary motion. As is best seen in Fig. l, the air line il projects a short distance above the upper end portion of the nozzle 34, and has an inwardly projecting, tapered shoulder 45 formed in the upper edge portion thereof, which is effective to cause the air issuing from the air line 4i to be directed against the stream of fuel issuing from the nozzle 35, during an operation of our device.

In addition to the primary air supply line 4I, a secondary supply line 41, comprising an inverted substantially U-shaped member having two vertical legs or pipes 49 and 55 interconnected by an intermediate leg or pipe 5I, is mounted on the blast tube 2l with the leg 5I! extending through and connected to the top wall of the air duct 25 by suitable means such as a nipple 53, and with the other vertical leg 49 disposed above and in vertical alignment with the air line 4I. It will be noted that the vertical leg 45 is somewhat shorter than the leg 50 so that the lower end portion of the leg 49 is disposed a substantial distance above the upper end portion of the air line 4I and the nozzle 30.

A distributor member 55 comprising a deector plate 51 and a deflector head 58 is mounted on the leg 49 of the air line 41 in spaced relation to the walls of the flrebox I2 and comprises effective means for intimately mixing the air issuing from the primary line 4I and the secondary air line 41, and the fuel issuing from the nozzle 36, during an operation of our device, as will be discussed in greater detail presently.

The deector plate 51 may be made of any suitable material such as, for example, fire-clay or nre-brick, and is preferably of a circularshape having an opening Gil formed in the center thereof through which the leg 49 of the air line 41 extends.

The deflector head 5B is hemi-spherical in shape, having a convex outer surface 55 and a concave inner surface 66. A narrow web 53 having an opening 69 formed in the central portion thereof, Fig. 4, extends across the open end of the deilector head 58 and is held in engagement with the lower endportion of the leg 49 of the air line 41 and with the central portion of the deflector plate 51 by a bolt 'H extending upwardly through the hollow shell of the deflector head 58 and through the opening 59 in the web 68 into threaded engagement with suitable means, such as, two lugs 13 and v15 projecting inwardly toward each other from the lower end portion ofthe leg 45, Fig. 3, and having threads formed on their opposed faces.

The lower face of the deector plate 51, Fig. l, has an annular concave surface 18 formed therein, which is disposed circumferentially around the opening 65. The defleotorhead 58 is so'constituted and arranged that air discharged downwardly from the leg 49 of the air line 41 is deflected by the concave surface 56 upwardly against the concave annular surface 1B at an acute angle to the horizontal, and fuel and air discharged upwardly from the nozzle 30 and the air line 4i are deflected outwardly by the convex outer surface 65 into engagement with the concave annular surface 15, also at an acute angle to the horizontal. Hence, it will be seen that, as the fuel and air issue from the nozzle 30 and the pipe 4i, the airis caused to rotate around the stream of fuel by the deector vanes 43 and is caused to impinge against the stream of fuel by the shoulders 45 formed in the upper edge portion of the pipe 4I, so that mixing of the primary air and the fuel is initiated during the original movement thereof from the air line 4! and the nozzle 35. Following this initial mixing of the primary air and the fuel, it will be seen that the primary air and fuel are caused t0 impinge against the lower convex surface 55 of the deector plate 51 which is effective to cause further atomization of the fuel, further mixture of the fuel with the primary air, and impart a swirling motion to fuel, the swirling layer of primary air impinging substantially directly against, and imparting rotary motion to, the stream of fuel which has been separated into a thin layer by the lower end portion of the deflector head 58. As previously stated, it will be seen that this mixture of fuel and primary air is deflected upwardly and outwardly by the deflector head 58 against the annular concave surface 18 of the deflector plate 51. However, it will be seen that with secondary air being discharged from the air line 41 and deflected upwardly by the delector head 5B against the concave annular surface 18, the mixture of the fuel and primary air is caused to impinge against the layer of secondary air flowing over the annular concave surface 18 and obviously will Vbe effective to impart a swirling motion to the latter.

The concave annular' surface 18 is so constituted and arranged that the mixture of primary air, secondary air, and fuel is caused to be deected downwardly toward the bottom end portion of the iirebox I2, so that the mixture is caused to swirl downwardly in the iirebox toward the bottom wall I8 and the lower end portions of the side walls of the furnace I4 and then, upon striking the bottom wall I8 thereof, is caused to be deflected upwardly in the rebox. Thus, it will be seen that a turbulent flow of the air-fuel mixture is caused with our novel device, which is obviously effective to cause an intimate mixture of the fuel and air which is essential to good and eflicient combustion of the fuel, the mixture being caused to swirl downwardly toward the bottom of the rebox I2 and then to billow upwardly again in a turbulent manner.

Y Air may be fed to the primary air line 4I and the secondary air line 41 through the air duct 26 from any suitable common source, such as the blower B, shown mounted on the outer end portion of the blast tube 2 I. Any one of several different types of blowers, which are well known in the art, may be used.

To afford individual controls for the flow of air through the primart7 air line 4I and the secondary air line 41, we have mounted a buttery valve 8l eccentrically mounted on a pivot pin 82 within the air duct 25, between the air line 4I and the air line 41, and another butterfly valve 84 pivotally mounted on a pin 35 within the air duct 26 adjacent to the lower end portion of the leg 50 of the air line 41. Control rods 81 and S3 extend longitudinally through the air duct 26 and are connected at their inner end portions to the valves 8i and 84 by pins 9i and 92, the outer end portions of the rods 81 and 88 projecting outwardly from the end portion of the air duct 2t, Fig. 1, to afford handles whereby the control rods 81 and 88 may 'be moved longitudinally within the air duct 25 to thereby eect pivotal movement of the valves 3l and 84 on the pins 32 4and 85', respectively. Thus, it will be. seen that -by-movem'ent of the. control rods 8.1' and 88Y in a longitudinaldirection, the valves 8| and. 84 may .be moved' between the open positions shown ir.

therv air liner' 41, and the valve 8s. being effective 'to control the effective opening of the connection between the air duct 26 and the air line 4l. i It will be seen that the valves 8| and 845, while being operable independently to open and close the entrances into the air lines 4l and fill, re-

spectively, are also operable conjointlyr to control the ilo'w of air into the air lines 4l and 4l, that is, variation in the control position of one ofi the valves 8i and 84 affects the flow of air past the other of the valves when the latter is in anl open position. For example, it will be seen that with the valves 8i andA 8L!` disposed in the positions shown in solid lines in Fig. 1, if one of the valves, such as, for example, the valve 8c is moved'toward closed position and it is desired to maintain the` same flow of air past the valve al, the valve Si shouldl be moved somewhat toward closed position because of the increased flow of air to the valve 8`I occasioned by the partial closing of the valve Sli.` Thus, it will be seen that the valves Y 8| and 84 cooperate to afford overall control of the flow of air into the burner "Land also aiiord independent meansA for controlling the now of air into the air lineslii and 41.

Two electrodesV 94' and 5, Figs. l and 2, are nlounted in the primary air line il and project upwardly through two' oppositelydisposed vanes 4t3l of the swirler mechanism` lil` The electrodes 34 and 95 are'disposedA in spaced relation above the; orifice 39 of thee'nozzle 33 and afford `anef- Vfective sparking device, whereby electricity may bje fed from a suitable source, not shown, to the electrodes 94 and 95`through wires @l and 38 which extend outwardlythroughthe housing 2l of the blast tube 2 l to thereby afford a device for igniting the burner lil by remote control.

From the foregoing it will be seen that we have afforded a novel burner which is effective, in a novel and expeditious manner, to impart an efficient turbulent swirling motion to the air-fuel mixture produced by the burner, to thereby insure efficient mixing of the air and fuel and efficient combustion of the latter.

Also, it will be seen that we have afforded a novel burner wherein the parts 'thereof are constituted and arranged in a novel and expeditious manner, and which is practical and eilicient in operation and may be economically produced commercially.

Thus, while we have illustrated and described the preferred embodiment of our invention, it is to be understood that this is capable of variation and modification and we therefore do not wish to be limited to the precise details set forth, but desire to avail ourselves of such changes and alterations as fall within the purview of the following claims.

We claim:

1.*In a liquid-fuel burner, a combustion plate having a downwardly facing concave annular surface, an air line extending vertically through the central portion of said plate and having an outlet for feeding air downwardly therethrough, a deflector member having a diameter just slightly greater than the diameter of said central portion mounted below said air line and having an 6 upwardlyy facing concave surface located below said outlet for deflecting air discharged therefrom upwardly at an acute angle a'gainstthe inner marginal edge portion of said concave annular surface, said deflector member having a lower outer convex surface and means for feeding a mixture of fuel and air upwardly around the convex surface of said deflector' member and into engagement with said annular surface, said means comprising an upwardly opening air line disposed below said deflector member' in position to feed. a stream of air upwardly' against the convex surface of said deflector member, and Va fuel nozzle mounted in said last mentioned air line for feeding liquid fuel into the said stream of air.

2. In a liquid-fuel burner, a horizontally disposed combustion plate having a downwardly facing annular concave surface, an air line extending vertically through said plate in the center of said annular surface and having a downwardly directed outlet portion, means comprising a hemi-spherically shaped deilector memleer mounted on the lower end portion of said outlet portion of said air line for supporting said combustion plate thereon and having a downwardly facing convex outer surface, said deflector member being hollow and having an upwardly facing concave inner i surface disposed belowv said outlet portion of said air line inaxial alignment therewith and with the center of said annular surface for deecting air discharged from said air line upwardly `at an acute angle against the radial inner edge portion of said annular surface, whereby said upwardly deflected air is deflected outwardly `and then downwardly past said deiiector member by the annular concave surface of said combustion plate and means for feeding a mixture of fuel and air upwardly past said deector member into engagement with the radial inner edge portion-of said annular surface, said means comprising a second air line havngfan upwardlyy directed outlet disposed below said outlet portion of said first mentioned air line in axial alignment therewith for feeding a stream of air upwardly against the center portion of said convex surface of said deflector member, and a fuel nozzle mounted in said second air line for feeding liquid fuel into the central portion of said stream of air.

3. In a liquid-fuel burner, a horizontally disposed plate, a nozzle disposed below said plate and directed upwardly in vertical alignment therewith for feeding a stream of fuel upwardly against said plate, an air line having an outlet portion extending upwardly around said nozzle in spaced relation thereto for feeding a stream of air upwardly therepast into engagement with the said stream of fuel, a second elongated air line having an outlet portion mounted above said rst mentioned air line in axial alignment therewith and projecting through said plate for feeding a stream of air downwardly toward the said first mentioned stream of air and said stream of fuel, a deector mounted between said outlet portions of said air lines in alignment therewith, said deilector being disposed below said plate and having surfaces thereon disposed toward said outlet portions of said air lines for directing said airstreams in said stream of fuel toward said plate, an elongated air duct extending transversely to said air lines and connected thereto for feeding air thereinto from a common source, and valve Yvalve means comprising a valve member mounted in said duct between said air lines and operable to adjust the effective opening of said duct between said air lines, and a, valve member mounted in said duct adjacent the connection of said duct and said second air line, and operable to adjust the effective opening of the connection between said second air line and said duct.

4. In a furnace of the type comprising walls dening a rebox, a liquid-fuel nozzle disposed in the lower portion of said rebox and projecting upwardly away from the central portion of the bottom wall of said firebox for directing a stream of fuel upwardly in said rebox, an air line having an outlet portion mounted around said nozzle for feeding a stream of air upwardly therepast and around said stream of fuel, a second air line mounted in said iirebox and extending above the outlet portion of said first mentioned air line and said nozzle and having an outlet directed downwardly toward said first mentioned air line and said nozzle for feeding a stream of air theretoward, and means for mixing said air streams and said fuel stream and directing said mixed streams downwardly and outwardly toward the bottom of said rebox, said means comprising a horizontally disposed plate mounted on said second air line above said outlet portion of said first mentioned air line and said Y zontal.

5. In a liquid-fuel burner, a horizontally disposed plate having a concave annular lower surface, an air line mounted in said plate and having an outlet for feeding a stream of air downwardly away from the center of said annular surface, a deflector member mounted below the outlet of said air line for directing said air stream upwardly against said annular surface at an acute angle to the horizontal, said deiiector member having a convex lower surface and being disposed vertically below said center of said annular surface with the outer edge portion thereof disposed horizontally inwardly of the outer edge portion of said annular surface, and means for feeding a mixture of liquid-fuel and air into engagement with said annular surface and said stream of air, said means comprising a nozzle mounted below said deflector and directed theretoward for feeding a stream of liquid-fuel thereagainst, an air line having an upwardly directed outlet portion mounted around said nozzle in spaced relation thereto for feeding a stream of air upwardly therepast, and a plurality of deflector vanes extending between said nozzle and said outlet portion of said last mentioned air line` at an angle to the horizontal for deflecting said last mentioned air stream around said stream of fuel in a circular motion.

CHARLES T. DENKER'. JOHN R. MOORE.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,205,389 Preston Nov. 21, 1916 1,531,819 Sohaumann Mar. 31, 1925 1,588,945 Dailey June 15, 1926 1,610,007 Hildebrandt Dec. 7, 1926 1,634,819 Bates July 5, 1927 1,702,162 Johnson Feb. 12, 1929 2,022,512 Macchi Nov. 26, 1936 2,117,511 Scott May 17, 1938 2,164,225 Walker June 27, 1939 2,204,451 Schoenwetter June 11, 1940 2,228,324 Norton Jan. 14, 1941 2,269,719 Jackson Jan. 13, 1942 

